~ John Doe ~

"I'm going to be late!" He whispered loudly  while checking his watch. It was his first day as the animal feeder at the zoo in the city. Finally, the train pulled into the station and he eagerly got on.

The train was uncomfortable. It bounced and lurched against the rails and the seats were as hard as rocks, but it's what he had to take. He lived too far away from the zoo to walk there.

His stop sounded on the speakers and he got off. Skipping the stairs two at a time, he put the city sidewalk beneath his feet again. After another look at his watch, he jogged the rest of the way, coming up to a homeless man on the side of a grocery store. He passed by, but mentally kicked himself and turned around.

"Hey man. How's it going?" After fishing his wallet from his back pocket, he took out a few bills and coins.

The homeless man didn't say a word. He just swayed back and forth with his head down while sitting against the brick wall.

John Doe held the money out for him to take, but the homeless man still didn't move. He bent down and flipped the man's hand over and placed the money in his palm and closed his fist.

"That's all I got right now, bud. I'll give you more when I can. Today is my first day of work at the zoo right up the road." He pointed in the direction of the zoo then he remembered his clothes.

"My uniform is supposed to arrive today. I hope it's there..."

"If you want, I can see about getting you in the zoo some time, no charge. But right now I got to go, I'm running late." He started to stand up, but a strong grip clamped around his forearm.

"Ouch, man what are you doing?" He tugged and pulled, trying to get free to no avail.

The man tilted his head back and looked up. His eyes were as cloudy as a rainy day, black sludge covered the inside of his mouth, and he began to growl.

"What the hell man? Let me go!" He tried to pry the iron grip from his arm, which was cutting off the circulation. The man's dirty, long fingernails dug into his skin. Blood seeped from the crescent marks as the grip forced the nails deeper and deeper. He winced and cursed while pulling at the man's fingers.

The man opened his mouth and leaned in, trying to bite. John Doe held the snapping head back and tried to pull his hand free. In doing so, the man's fingers began to enter his flesh through the nail wounds. As he held off the snapping jaws, spit and the black goo landed all over, even on the arm the man dug into. With one desperate pull and twist, John Doe finally got his arm free and stumbled backwards. The homeless man rolled onto his side and crawled towards him, but he got up and stepped away. A few people had started recording everything that happened with their phones. He walked away from there as fast as he could, wrapping his jacket around his arm to stop the dark crimson blood from flowing freely.

As he walked, he peeled the jacket back, taking a look at it. It was bad. The skin around the wound was stretched back and pushed inside. Everything else was covered in blood.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man... What if he was sick?? What if he had a disease and gave it to me?? It's going to get infected! I'm gonna lose my arm, they'll have to amputate!... No, no, no. No amputations. It's nothing, really. I'll just get one of the vets at work to look at it. I'm closer to the zoo than I am to a hospital, I'll go there for help."

When he made it to the employee gate, he fumbled with the keys, trying to unlock the door to the vet office, where they examine the zoo animals. He staggered through the room, using the walls as a support for his slowly leaning body.

"Hello? Anybody? I need some help!" He shouted, but no one came to help. No one was there.

The pain now shot up his arm and made its way down his chest. He felt it. He felt the pain travel through his body. The world started to spin and soon after, his vision became blurry. He wanted a drink. No matter how much spit he swallowed, his throat remained dry. He cupped with his good hand under the sink in the examination room and slurped the water out of it, but all he could taste was copper. After drinking, he slowly rinsed away the blood, but it was no use. The skin would be cleaned in the water, but as soon as he pulled away, more blood oozed from the holes in his arm.

Perspiration kicked in and dampened all his clothes in sweat, he was burning up. His head throbbed and every bone felt like shattered glass. He gasped for air and tried to remain conscious, feeling his airways swelling shut. He took a look in the mirror that hung above the sink. Where tears should've fell from, blood took their place. He walked away and felt a liquid run from his nose. It dripped to his lips and his tongue instinctively flicked out and he tasted pennies. He wiped at it with his free hand and saw it covered in blood.

He stumbled over to the door and out into the hall, tripping over his own feet and catching himself on a door.

He stood up and then couldn't move. His eyes felt like they were being pushed on, his body had grown numb from the pain, and his blood made small puddles on the floor. The corners of his view went black. Then the darkness progressed to spiderweb across his vision. The last thing he saw before the darkness consumed everything, was a slightly open door.

The door to the lion exhibit.